My Lotus Academia
by TheLastoftheZariman
Summary: Sentients are invading Earth, and humanity's last hope lies with the recently discovered Warframes. To learn how to use the warframes, those capable of controlling them are brought to the Lotus Academy, in order to learn how to use their power in defense of humanity.
1. Prologue

A loud banging sound resonated trough the halls, reverberating on the golden walls and decorated columns adorning the hall. At the end of this several dozens meters long hall, stood a door, which stood impenetrable for centuries.

In front of this door, there stood two people. One looked like an armored pharaoh, his body the color of sand with red and blue details, while the other looked less like an armor and more like a creature, it's skin a grayish color, with slightly pulsing feelers protruding from various point on his body and two majestic horns on his head.

"Remind me again Nidus," said the first one, "why are we here doing this shit when we could be doing something useful with our time?"

"Come on Inaros, we've been over this what, four times already?" replied the second one, moving to try a different tool on the door, "We barely understand the warframes, let alone the sentients or the ancient technology of the Orokins. We need to understand more, or we might end up like the child playing with the loaded gun".

"And wasting time trying to pry open a door that nobody has ever opened will help us how exactly?" asked Inaros, moving to grab another tool and going back to working on the door.

"You know what, you mummified old fart? You already know all that, so either shut up and help or get out and deal with the general" replied Nidus, although there was a smile in his voice.

"Alright alright… the drinks are on you tonight though," said Inaros, moving to examine the door more closely.

At first glance it appeared to be a simple door made of the metallic alloy the Orokin used in almost all of their bases, but indentations and connections on it made Inaros quickly realize that brute force would not move their obstacle.

"It's a security lock-down door." Moving back to where the two had left most of the instrument, a few meters away, he picked up a tablet with a map of the area. "We will need to re-activate the main energy generator, then find the control room, and from there disable the lockdown."

"You're kidding," begged Nidus, "We already spent over an hour in this damn place… now I'll never manage to prepare my lesson plans in time".

"Weren't you supposed to prepare those over a month ago?" asked his partner, packing what instruments they had taken out.

The biological looking guy made a grunt that didn't really mean anything and the two moved back in the corridors, following the map to the generator.

"So, what's the deal with this place anyway?" asked Nidus, probably to make conversation in the face of the oppressing silence of the corridors; "I mean, for months now the brass has been obsessed with this school, but out of the blue they call us away and send us to Mars to explore an old Orokin tower, a crashed Orokin tower mind you, in hope of finding… what? Some super secret Orokin weapon? The secret to eternal life? The Orokin Emperor's porn stash?"

Inaros chuckled. "I think it's mostly a matter of caution. Most people in the military alliance don't trust each others, let alone us. We're a bunch of people exposed to extra-dimensional crap who can suddenly shoot beams out of their hands and pilot weapons of mass destruction. Makes sense then that they wouldn't tell us about this place unless they believe we're needed to unlock whatever secret is hidden here."

As he finished talking, the two turned a corner and found an elevator. Entering it and looking up, the Egyptian looking one asked: "Wanna race who can climb faster to the top?"

"Fuck you man" replied the other one, jumping and starting the ascension.

Once on top, Inaros stood up, legs slightly spread apart, hands balled into fists on his waist, and asked: "You know what I could use right now?"

"An exorcism?" asked back Nidus, clapping his hand on his partner's back with enough force to make him stagger out of his ridiculous pose.

After the elevator there were a few more corridors, until the two finally reached their objective: the generator room.

"Alright! Let's get this baby up and running again!" Exclaimed Nidus.

There was a long pause until he asked: "How do we do that?"

Shaking his head, Inaros moved towards the controls on the left of the generator, while motion to his partner to do the same on the other side.

"If this place was closed in lock-down, the keys to the generator should still be in the consoles. All we need to do is turn the keys at the same time. That will initiate a generator restart. If there are any other problems, the sequence will stop and highlight them for us."

So it was that at the count of three, the two turned the keys and the generator sprung back to life with a powerful humming sound reverberating all around the two warframes and losing itself in the corridors. In rapid succession, the various screens and consoles all around turned on, showing various statistics and messages in the long lost language of the Orokin.

"Well, that worked well enough. Strange that nothing bad happened to us while we were here..." As Nidus was saying that, a long howling was heard resonating trough the halls and corridors, making Nidus' feelers stand at attention and sending a shiver down Inaros' spine.

"Nidus?" asked Inaros.

"Yes Inaros?" asked back Nidus.

"Do me a favor and try not to choke on your own foot".

And as Inaros said that, all the lights, including the consoles and the ceiling lights, turned off, leaving the two in the darkness.

* * *

Nidus and Inaros, forced to move along the corridors using only the lights on their Braton rifles, were inching carefully back to the room with the door they had originally come to open. As soon as the light had gone out, the two had fallen on their training and whipped out their rifles, turning on the lights on them, and prepared themselves to face whatever had howled.

However, after over an hour of slowly walking back, nothing had shown itself. Instead of relaxing them, this made the two warframes tense even more.

After all, it was one thing to face an enemy charging at you, but it was another completely to face one capable of waiting in the shadow and ambushing you.

Upon reaching the main hall, they found the vault door wide open and no signs of whatever was in the tower with them. Looking at each other, Inaros motioned towards the door with his head, moving to cover their backs at the same time.

Nidus moved carefully towards the door, keeping a careful eye in front of him and knowing that his partner would do the same behind him.

He inched around the door, exposing as little of himself as possible while trying to see the most inside the door. He was surprised when he found that the room was remarkably smaller than they originally believed, containing only a large pod, a smaller pod right next to it, both open and without content, and what looked to be an independent generator behind the two, still functioning without problem.

Seeing that there was nothing moving inside, Nidus fully entered the room, moving to check if the two open pods had any information on them. The larger one was completely barren, not even a writing or scrap of data on it. The second one appeared the same, but the inspecting warframe was quick to notice how tick the void presence was inside it.

However, before he was able to report what he had found, he heard Inaros shooting something. Quickly whirling around and taking aim, he only managed to see a rapidly moving shadow and sparks of golden energy from time to time.

Nidus was about to send out his infestation in hope of blocking his target, but as he was raising his leg to do so the shadow launched itself at him, grabbing him in the one moment his guard was down. Before the captive warframe could even attempt to struggle to get free, he found himself unable to move, his limbs refusing to obey his commands.

Seeing his partner grabbed and the shadow still for the first time since he first saw it, Inaros wasted no time in casting out his sand, hoping to blind the thing and giving him time to plant a bullet in its head. However, before his ability could reach it, a blue flash came away from it and landed right behind inaros. The warframe quickly spun around unsheathing the blade on his back and bringing it down on whatever was behind him, trusting his sand to keep the first enemy blinded for a few more moments. However, a breath away from hitting its mark, the blade stilled in mid-air. And just like the blade, his arm and the rest of his body were still, locked in place, as if frozen.

And even if he hadn't been held in place by whatever it was that kept him there, he might have frozen on his own, as in front of him stood what he could only describe as a boy. While he stood confidently and poised, his face showed no signs of aging, making Inaros think that he couldn't be older than 18. His face was framed by reddish brown hair, reaching about his shoulders. However, no matter how young the boy may look, his green eyes were piercing Inaros, going beyond the shell of the warframe and straight to the person piloting it, making the man feel naked and defenseless in a way he never felt before while using his warframe.

He and the boy stood there for what felt like forever, but was probably only a few seconds, the shadow coming to stand behind the boy. Now that it was still and closer, Inaros could identify it as a warframe, but it was a strange one. It looked like an Excalibur, but it had the golden details of a Prime. However, the design was different than Excalibur Prime, leaving the man wondering what exactly this was. Plus, it was wearing a black scarf.

As he was wondering, the boy spoke:

"You're strong. But you could be stronger"

Having said that, he turned around, walking away with the warframe following him like a puppy.

It took at least a full minute before the two warframes got back control of their bodies. Upon being fully able to move again, the two ran after the boy, fearing he would take their ship to leave the planet.

But he didn't. The two reached the ship without meeting him again. Their ship was left as they left it, sitting quietly on a half-broken balcony. No trace of the boy or of the warframe with him.

"so, that's your report?" asked General Marius Creed.

"That's our report" replied Jack Vadham, pilot of Inaros. He and Reo Hinata, the pilot of Nidus, had left their warframes upon boarding the flagship of the military alliance fleet and reported to General Creed.

The general was easily two meters of height, made of muscles and lacking a visible neck. He was the perfect representation of the military muscle-head stereotype, but he was surprisingly deep and insightful.

And right now, the man was deep in thought.

"We have about a couple hundred registered warframe pilots. Of those, only a few are capable of piloting a prime frame. Now however, we find ourselves with this person, coming out of nowhere, capable of freezing a warframe without even touching them, and accompanied by what could easily be considered as a prime Excalibur."

He left that hanging in the air, considering both the info and the two men in front of him. Jack Vadham and Reo Hinata were the very first capable of piloting a warframe. Thanks to them, humanity had found the ancient Orokin tower containing the method to create new warframes, giving them all a chance to survive the war with the aliens currently invading them.

However, they now had many, many more pilots, all thanks to controlled exposition to void energy. However, they were all teenagers or little more, untrained and unprepared yet. This was why they were preparing a school for them, to hopefully prepare them and avoid massive casualties when they were finally ready to be deployed.

Until now, the situation had been hard, but simple. Sentients, damn aliens made of machines, capable of taking over technology unless properly shielded, attacked Earth in waves, acting like animals, with no strategy or clear objective except to kill as many as possible. Warframes, now that they had them, could be used against these monsters in defense of the planet.

However, the arrival of this new unknown made the situation more difficult. This boy came out of nowhere, left in that pod in that vault for who knew how long. He was capable of some degree of control over warframes with their pilots already inside, and had a warframe of his own that followed him around.

Warframes were exceedingly powerful. Having even just one unaccounted for was a recipe for disaster.

"We will deploy all available resources to find this mystery warframe," declared the General, "In the meantime, we cannot forget our priorities. Vadham, Hinata, you two are to return to the moon and work on the last preparations for the academy." he launched a folder across the table they were currently sitting around towards the two men. "In there are the classes you two need to take on personally: Vadham, you get the Prime class. We have high hopes for those guys, so make it happen. Hinata, you get Class A. In there you have all the most promising Warframe pilots, the best and most powerful outside of the Prime class."

Standing up, the man looked at the two pilots and declared: "Those kids are the best shot we have of keeping our people alive. Make them into the heroes we need."


	2. First impressions

" _Synaptic protection overloaded! Readings are in the red!"_

" _Consciousness bleed-out! 30 seconds!_

" _Cut the link!"_

" _We can't! It's a perfect synchronization, we can't safely..."_

" _Forced link removal! Now!"_

" _We might kill him!"_

" _Cut the goddamn link!"_

* * *

Hiro woke up with a start. It took him a few moments to realize where he was, at which point he slumped back in his seat. He was on a shuttle for the moon; in a little under twenty four hours, he would be joining the Prime class of the Lotus academy.

It was still so surreal for him. A week before, he was about to take the exam to enter a pretty average university in Tokyo, just another black haired guy with dark eyes among the masses of Japanese students, but then there was the attack.

A small group of Sentients had attacked the area where he lived. The government had launched their countermeasure: the void bomb. It submersed the affected area in void energy, killing the Sentients… and any living being as well. When it was all over, everyone was dead. Everyone but him. The exposition to the void had given him the ability to survive its energies, and to pilot a warframe.

Hiro looked around. He was alone, as the shuttle would remain in auto-pilot all the way to the moon, and nobody else needed to go to the academy at this time, as the academy's year had already started a few weeks before. Every other person capable of piloting warframes would be sent later, once the following year started. But Hiro had been sent as soon as it was possible.

Because he could pilot Excalibur Prime. Because Primes were too important to leave them inactive.

Excalibur Prime had been sent in the shuttle with him, in a specially designed suspension unit made to keep the warframe secure during travel. Even with the frame being kept in the cargo bay, he could feel its presence in his mind, as if it would take nothing but a thought to take control of it again.

But he didn't want to take control of it. If it was up to him, he would never see the damn thing again.

 _Pain like nothing he had felt before cursing trough him like liquid fire in his veins. A pressure on his mind like someone was trying to squeeze his brain out. He could feel himself, but he could also feel something else. Hands so strong they could crush diamonds, legs so powerful he could clear a football field with a single jump._

 _He opened his eyes, but he was not strapped on the table. He was looking at his own body trough the glass of a containment unit. And then the voice!_

" _Hello there kiddo! We'll have so much fun together you and I..."_

 _He screamed, his pain multiplying tenfold as muscles that had not been used in centuries moved for the first time._

 _And then he knew no more._

That voice… if he ever heard it again, it would be too soon.

* * *

Landing on the Moon had been nothing too exciting. Even with the atmosphere the satellite had recently gained thanks to some Orokin machine, there was still next to no weather, and no wind, so the ride down was smooth.

Upon exiting the shuttle, Hiro found a man waiting for him at the edge of the landing pad. He was dressed in a white shirt and black pants, with a lotus symbol pinned to his left breast pocket. He had dark, short hair, and as he walked closer Hiro could see he had Asian features, and appeared to be in his forties.

"Greeting," the man said once he was in front of Hiro, "I'm Hinata Reo, code-name Nidus, I'm the teacher of Class A here at the academy and, as I was the only one available, your guide for today. You can call me Professor or Sir. Your class teacher, Jack Vandham, is currently busy, but you'll meet him tomorrow morning when you'll start classes".

He looked towards the back of the shuttle, where the academy staff was unloading the warframe containment unit.

"Your warframe will be brought to the Arsenal," he continued, "where it will be put in your assigned area, together with the weapons you've been assigned. You'll get the chance to get familiar with your Arsenal area during the next few days, during somatic link acclimatization period".

Having said his piece, he checked his watch and then said: "I believe that's everything. You'll find a folder on your desk later detailing everything I just said, so don't worry about having to memorize it all right away. Now, follow me and I'll show you around".

The academy looked a lot more like a school and a lot less like a military academy, even though a few things were very much military in nature: when Hiro and the professor passed other students they would snap to attention and offer a salute, as if they were soldiers and he was a higher rank.

Which, when Hiro thought about it, was essentially the truth.

The corridors clearly used to be Orokin ruins, rebuilt and re-purposed. Even with how good the builders had been, you could still see in several places where the ancient Orokin's designs clashed with the newer human's constructions. Even then, the place was well lit, the corridors massive and awe-inspiring. From time to time, the two would come across white and gold sphere's, about as tall as Hiro's shoulders. His professor had told him they were security systems.

It took Professor Hinata about two hours to show the new student everything. Among the most important places, there were the floor with all the classes, the Arsenal, the hangar and the infirmary. Hiro was also shown the tram that would bring him and his classmates to the exercise areas. Their final destination was the common areas. They were all on the same floor, each of them the same design. Each class had its own area, which led to the dormitories and was, in a word, massive.

It was circular in shape, almost like a tower. It had a large, decorated fountain in the middle, with the part that let out the water floating about five meters above the pool to collect the water. Crystals shaped like trees were placed around it, white with pinkish crystals shaped like leaves on the branches, all of it emanating a soft light.

All around the fountain, a few meters away, there were comfy looking couches and sofas.

Going up from the top of the fountain, there was another crystal tree, which went high and reached the second floor, which itself was accessible thanks to two sets of stairs on the sides of the room.

The second floor was open in the center, to give room to the crystal tree and giving an open view to the first floor. Along the circumference of the floor there were more small crystal trees and benches, and in the point that was the opposite of the entrance on the first floor there was an arc leading to the dormitories.

"I'll leave you here. Get familiar with the place and get some rest, your classes start tomorrow".

That said, Professor Hinata left, leaving Hiro alone in front of the fountain, a bit overwhelmed.

"You look lost" said a voice right next to his ear, making him almost jump out of his skin.

"Don't do that!" he cried, finding a girl behind him.

She was rather petite, her dark brown hair becoming bright red towards the tips, pulled together into two pigtails. Her bright hazel eyes were bright and curious, but there was an edge of something the boy couldn't recognize.

She had an easy smile on her face, her head slightly tilted to the right. Hiro thought she looked quite adorable.

"Are you the new guy?" she asked, hands behind her back and slightly tapping her left foot on her right. "We were told someone would arrive who could use Excalibur Prime. That's so cool! So are you it?"

A bit overwhelmed – she had spoken remarkably fast and with a slight accent – he had to take a moment to collect his thoughts before answering her: "Yeah, I guess I am. My name's is Hiro Yamamoto. Who are you?"

The girl raised an eyebrow, her eyes half-lidded, and her smile turned into a smirk.

"You guess?" she repeated. "Well, that doesn't sound very encouraging. Are you sure you should be in the Prime Class?"

She approached him, quickly invading his personal space, making him sputter and take steps back until his back hit the side of the fountain.

As she got her mouth right next to his ear, she whispered: "My name is Annalisa. I can't wait to play with you!"

Having said that, she turned around and walked away, humming one song or another to herself.

Hiro slowly let himself fall onto the border of the fountain, waiting for his brain to catch up to what had just happened.

"Yeah, don't worry about her: she's crazy" said a voice, again right beside him.

The boy jumped again, this time falling on his back on the floor and looking back at the boy who just spoke to him.

"What is it with you people needing to scare the shit out of me?" he demanded, getting back on his feet.

The boy who spoke to him was tall, the dark brown of his skin contrasting heavily with the bright yellow of his T-shirt and the amazingly out of place green dye of his short curly hair.

Noticing that Hiro was stuck staring at his hair, the newcomer barked out a laugh and said: "Yeah, I do have that effect on people."

"Sorry," said Hiro. "My name's Hiro..."

"Yamamoto," finished the other guy for him. "I heard you speaking to Anna. My name is Carlos de Santos. I'm guessing nobody told you, but me, Annalisa and a girl called Ai Wang are your team."

"My team? What do you mean?"

"Everyone in the academy is divided in teams of four," explained Carlos. "In our case, that's the four of us: me, you, Anna and Ai."

Sitting down on the fountain's border, he patted the spot next to him. Once Hiro had sat down, he continued:

"My warframe is Oberon Prime. I mostly operate as a support, manipulating the battlefield around us and, should the need arise, healing you guys. Ai uses Mirage Prime, and her job is to keep the heat off of you using her illusions and manipulation of the light spectrum."

He took a sip from a bottle of water Hiro just then realized the boy had been holding the entire time.

"Then there's you, Excalibur Prime, and your job will pretty much require you to adapt to the flow of battle and strike down our targets with either your blade or your gun, whichever will be the most appropriate."

"The last one is Anna, and she uses Valkyr Prime. Her warframe has a pretty tick armor and great mobility, so she's our tank. She attracts enemy fire and then dances out of the way. On the battlefield, she's both amazingly beautiful and incredibly deadly."

Carlos then turned and smiled at Hiro, raising his fist in offer.

"So, we're a team now! Let's kick ass and take names!"

Hiro smiled, and returned the fistbumb.

* * *

On mars, a black warframe was calmly walking through the dark corridors of a slumbering Orokin ruin. He had not even bothered to search the generator to power it up, he had no need. He still remembered the corridors and floors by heart.

Thanks to that, he reached the main hangar quickly. It had taken him weeks of walking trough the deserts of Mars to reach this ruin in the first place, but he had finally found it.

Walking up to the small landing craft in the center of the hangar, the warframe stilled for a moment as a boy appeared in front of him in a small flash of blue light. Said boy ran his hand on the smooth surface of the craft, before said hand started glowing. The glow then slowly traveled ontu the landing craft, reaching all of it before the entire thing glowed brightly for a moment, before the light disappeared and it started raising to hover about 5 meters into the air. The boy smiled fondly.

At the same time, in orbit around the sun, an ancient ship, hidden in a cocoon of void energy, awoke for the first time in millennia. Its systems picked up the signal coming from a liset on mars that had been irradiated with a power all too familiar.

In the center of bridge, a holographic prism appeared. Around it, the ship lights and systems started working overtime to catch up to every scrap of information available around it. The figure remained still and silent as it examined the reading of the found Liset, then started buzzing in excitement.

"Operator?"


	3. Training gone wrong

The Lotus Academy was quiet. Aside from the soldiers stationed outside as guards, the corridors and rooms were silent. Everyone was either sleeping or at least in their rooms. Everyone except for one solitary figure, slowly making their way down a corridor.

Hiro was having trouble sleeping. Even at 2 'o clock in the morning, sleep still eluded him. Too many thoughts running trough his head.

Which was way he was slowly, as silently as he could, making his way down the deserted corridors. He hoped walking a bit would help him clear his head.

His first week at the academy had been… interesting. Meeting his fourth and final teammate during his first breakfast had been uneventful; after having met the hyper-energetic Annalisa and the mess of colour that was Carlos, Ai Wang was not as traumatic. She was a rather calm and collected girl of Chinese descent, with jet black hair kept short for minimal maintenance and a severe looking face. According to the other two, she was a bit of a stickler for the rules, which the girl didn't even try to deny.

While his three partners each had a lot of quirks, he did feel very welcome in their small group. Carlos was a very warm person, and his calm demeanour combined with his affable personality seemed to both draw Ai into conversations and relax Anna. And all three seemed to be very excited to finally have a fourth member, accepting him completely from minute one. It was a new albeit welcome experience.

His first lesson, on the other hand, was intense. Their homeroom teacher, Jack Vandham, was tall, muscular and imposing. Looking like a walking army man stereotype, he also had the buzzcut, severe expression and dogtags to match. His mere presence commanded respect, and his experience in using a warframe was obviously far superior to that of his students.

And of course, with Hiro having arrived at the Academy two weeks after everyone else, he had dropped on him all the reading material they had covered in that time, telling him to get to the same point as quickly as possible. Aside from the usual languages, history and mathematics, the boy also found various books and reading materials about war, strategy, survival and the like. The teacher also had "reassured" him, saying that advanced xeno-engineering and bio-neurology were only taught in second year, when they would have to maintain their own warframes.

The other teachers were instead far more distant. Where Professor Vandham spoke to his students as equals, the other teachers (with the exception of Professor Hinata) treated the students almost dismissively, as if teaching them was a waste of their time. One of them had actually gone as far as wondering out loud what was the point of teaching math to cannon fodder.

According to rumour, he had not showed up for his next class. Or for any class after.

Even though most of his time was spent with his team, Hiro had gotten to know other members of the Prime class as well. Most of them only shared a few words with him before going back to their own teams, but a couple had stuck around enough to leave an impression on him. The first had been Ash Smith, a pretty American girl who seemed to always have a different instrument whenever she was in the common room. She had actually only told Hiro her name, her accent betraying her origin. The reason she stuck in his mind so much was because she played beautifully. The boy had spent several hours just sitting close by while she played, not saying anything and just enjoying the music.

Another one who was a bit more amicable was Ketora Sanaka, a French young man who dyed his hair a bright red and sported a goatee. He also had heterochromia, so his right eye was grey while his left one was blue. He could usually be found around the common room reading one book or another.

* * *

Lost in his thoughts about his new academic life, Hiro eventually found himself in the Arsenal room, which was a huge hangar-like space, filled with small stations where the students kept their warframes and assigned weapons.

The dark-haired boy walked to his station, sitting in a small stool, and stared at his warframe.

The thing looked like a relatively large human, except for the head, which sported a horn with a golden effigy on it, and the head itself had a golden circle where the face was supposed to be.

During the prior week, he and the rest of his class had regularly linked up with their frames, to get used to the connection and reduce the disorientation it caused in first-timers. It was mostly just getting linked up, walking around, maybe do some light stretching and some push-ups.

The first time they had done this, Hiro had been scared of feeling the same pain as the first time, but it never came. Professor Vandham had explained that the pain was a side effect of a 100% synchronisation, caused by the brain not being able to understand which body was actually the correct one and therefore firing off nervous endings randomly. This was the reason they usually kept the level of synchronisation at a stable 50%.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of footsteps coming up behind him. Fearing he had been caught outside the common room after curfew, he immediately rose up, maybe to attempt a quiet escape. However, he stopped when he noticed that the person who had joined him wasn't a teacher, but a young man as well. Probably a student, he thought.

The newcomer was tall, dressed in black trousers and a black jacket that went to his thighs. He had reddish brown hair, that went down to his shoulders, framing and bringing attention to his emerald green eyes.

Hiro was almost sure he was not part of the Prime class.

"Hello" the red-haired boy said.

"Hi" replied Hiro. He didn't really know what to say.

"Sorry to disturb you, I was just taking a walk" the other boy said; "I can leave you alone if you want".

"No… no you can stay" Hiro said, and then added: "I shouldn't really be here either. We're supposed to be in our common rooms".

"I doubt someone will die just because you went for a walk at night" was the reply, "I'm Rylus by the way".

"My name is Hiro, pleasure to meet you" Hiro said, doing a small bow out of habit.

Surprisingly, the other boy brought his palms together, as if in prayer, and then bowed as well. It was a gesture Hiro was not familiar with.

"So, what dark thoughts bring you here tonight, my friend?" asked Rylus.

"Tomorrow is my first training exercise" he replied. "And I'm afraid".

"Fear is normal" said the red head, moving forward to examine Excalibur Prime more closely. "Fear is one of our most important instincts. And our greatest tool for growth. Without fear, there is no courage. Without fear, there is no change".

"Sounds philosophical" was the reply.

"Indeed. But if you want something more concrete, I could say that your own fear is your greatest obstacle. Fight back against it, overcome it, and you will find that you are stronger than you ever believed".

Hiro thought about it while his companion walked around, examining the other prime warframes after he was done looking over Excalibur. He could see the point of what he was saying, but at the same time he could still feel the fear festering in the back of his mind. The sheer terror that he had felt the first time he linked with Excalibur, when that voice had echoed trough his head, its dark presence running trough his mind like fire, burning every other thought away.

" _ **Hey kiddo..."**_

the voice resonated trough the Arsenal room, scaring Hiro out of his thoughts. For a moment, as he jumped to his feet, he could almost see it: the oily shadow covering everything, and then a red light, as if far away… two burning red eyes staring at him…

However, even trough the fear, Hiro could feel a burning anger. Those eyes and that voice had tormented him ever since his first link, visited him in his every dream, appeared to him every time he closed his eyes.

" _Fight back against it, overcome it, and you will find that you are stronger than you ever believed"_

"I will not run away" he said. "I will stand my ground… and I will fight!"

Hiro turned around and walked out of the Arsenal, his head held high. He was done being afraid. He never noticed the shadow melting away behind him.

* * *

The mood was sombre on the tram. This was the first time any of them was on a live-fire exercise. For the first time, their warframes would be used in combat, even if just a simulated one, and everyone in the class was nervous. Everyone, that is, except Anna, who was turning on and off her Valkyr's claws in excitement, and Hiro, who had an almost palpable aura of determination around him.

"Hey, you okay?" asked him Carlos, currently piloting his Oberon Prime.

Everyone's body was actually in the arsenal, in a small bio-bed next to where their warframes were normally stored, neurally connected to their warframes trough the somatic link and being closely monitored for signs of danger. All the warframes had then grabbed their weapons and gear and went on the tram that would bring them to the dark side of the moon, where the training field was. Hiro was in his Excalibur Prime. Carlos was in his Oberon Prime, which looked sort of like a medieval knight, except that from the head sprouted imposing looking horns, woven together almost like branches. Annalisa was in control of Valkyr Prime, a streamlined, almost cat-like warframe with what looked like a crown of spines on her head and heavy gauntlets on her arms. Finally, Ai piloted Mirage Prime, a warframe looking like an harlequin. Curiously, many warframe that the teachers refereed to as females had the outlines for breasts and hips, even though warframe were just machines and there was no real purpose to a male/female distinction for them.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Oberon to Excalibur.

"Have you ever had a revelation that made you change the way you look at things?" asked back his teammate instead of answering. It was the first time piloting his warframe made him feel empowered rather than trapped.

"I know I have" piped up Anna from next to them, while still playing with her claws.

Oberon was a bit taken back. When he had left his teammate to go to sleep last night, Hiro had been full of doubts, still scared that his warframe would turn on him and eat him or something. But this morning, he looked almost like a different person.

"Also" continued Excalibur, turning to look at him now; "Do you know of a guy from our or another class called Rylus?"

"Can't say I ever heard of him. Why?"

"Met him the other day. He talked… differently than most people our age. I guess I was curious about who he was."

Before anyone could reply, the tram slowed to a stop. As soon as it had fully stilled, the door opened and Professor Vandham, now piloting Inaros, walked in, fully armed.

"Get off and get ready" he ordered. "We start in five."

* * *

The training field would look rather ordinary to anyone who would look at it when it was not in use. It was just another area of the moon, about a hundred square kilometres large. Just another collection of dunes with some rocks scattered about.

But if you were to turn on the combat simulation system, the dunes would come alive with hard-light construct resembling Sentients, pieces of cover resembling topped building would come out of the sand, and sometimes even holograms of civilians would appear under the rubble.

On another setting, it would become a holographic forest. On another, a dense jungle. On another a coastline. And dozens more. All one needed to train young warframe pilots to be ready for all situations.

And right now, Excalibur, Oberon and Valkyr were behind cover in an urban setting, letting Mirage scout ahead with her stealth abilities.

As soon as their five minutes of preparation had ended, Inaros had grabbed his class and briefed them as if it was a real situation. Sentients had attacked the city, all civilians were considered dead, they were to split off in their teams and clean up the city, each with their own sector to take care of. And right now, their sector was positively crawling with Sentients.

"We have a few hostiles in that alley up on the right" reported Ai, jumping down from a building close by next to them. "We could go that way, and there is a plaza further on where we could prepare a killzone using the lure. But the plaza is full of Sentients already, which means we might end up in a killzone ourselves if we go in without a plan."

"Then we'll have to find another way trough" said Oberon. "We can't risk it when we have almost the entire sector still full of enemies."

"Wait" said Hiro.

"What? You got a plan?" asked Mirage.

Hiro's mind was going trough the abilities his teammates had, and a plan was indeed forming in his head.

"Valkyr, you make us as fast as you can when we get there. Oberon, you create those energy plants on the ground and use your regeneration power. If then Mirage creates her solid illusions, we can use those as shields and make it to a safe area before getting completely swarmed by Sentients. I'll use that light explosion I can do to blind them as often as I can."

"I like it" declared Valkyr.

Oberon shook his head. "You're crazy. Both of you." He was still preparing his Braton assault rifle and checking his ammo reserves though.

"This is a simulation" mused Mirage. "If there ever was a time to try out crazy tactics, this is it."

Without another word, the squad moved. Entering the alley, they came upon two Sentients, who immediately raised their arms, ready to shoot.

However, as soon as they had come into view, Excalibur had raised his blade and a blinding flash went off, disorienting the enemies long enough for Valkyr to jump onto one and Oberon and Mirage to lay waste to the second with a barrage of Braton fire. As their Sentient went down, its hologram flickering out, Valkyr ripped the core off hers, dispatching it.

Continuing down the alley, they were rather surprised not to find more hostiles, but Oberon reasoned they might have moved towards the plaza. Moving as quietly as possible from cover to cover, with Mirage cloaked and acting as a scout, they rapidly reached the end of the alley.

While Mirage would go in for a quick second look, the others were readying themselves for a dash trough what was sure to be heavy enemy fire.

However, as Mirage returned, she was baffled.

"All the enemies in the area were terminated. There is another warframe in there, one I don't recognize."

* * *

In the control room for the training field, Inaros was watching live-feeds of his students moving trough the field. He was rather satisfied.

Of course, for a first time, they had not made the enemy particularly smart. Where the real Sentients were capable of communicating with each other over vast distances without saying a word, the ones his students were facing now were fully isolated, only able to work together when in direct visual contact. They had not even enabled their adaptive resistance, so their students could literally just waste them by hitting them over and over with the same weapon. Today was not about clever tactics or suicide scenarios. Today was all about getting used to their warframes in a combat situation. The rest could come once they were familiar with these new bodies.

Inaros had been observing various team at random during this. He would watch each and every team later, once the exercise was over. But for now, he was just catching snippets here and there, just like he would during a real battle. This was as much an exercise for him in leadership as it was for his students in battle.

He had caught Banshee's team earlier, the girl using her sonar to find a safe passage to higher ground, then attacking with the heavy positioning advantage this afforded them.

On the other hand, Rhino had used his nigh invincibility to act as a meat shield for his team while they eliminated hostiles using their Boar shotguns. A terrible tactic had these been real sentient, but he could give him credit for his team-oriented mentality.

Frost, on the other hand, had done exactly what was expected. He had created a blizzard, which was probably close to the absolute zero in temperature, all around himself and his team, leaving only a small safe zone in the middle of it for them. This made the sentient slow as molasses, making them easy kills. Again, not very useful against real Sentients, what with their adaptation skills, but it was a good start in learning how to incorporate his powers in combat situations.

"Intruder in zone 16!" called one of the operators in charge of the simulation. "Unknown warframe is on the field!"

This snapped Inaros out of his musings and focused him on the live feed of Excalibur's team, the cold hands of fear clamping on his guts.

Hiro had shown himself a capable strategist in class. He was good at quickly analysing threats and using what was available to fight back. But he was such a scaredy-cat that he was afraid it would take the boy months to become capable of being of any use in a combat situation. Today had been a revelation though, seeing him fighting the Sentients without hesitation.

However, he was not even close to being ready for the scarf-wearing warframe Inaros now saw on the feed. Neither was his team.

"I'm going on the field, recall all other teams. Once I'm into the field, seal it. Nobody in or out till I'm done."

* * *

Excalibur, Mirage, Valkyr and Oberon stood still, weapons at the ready, staring at the lone warframe standing in the middle of the plaza, surrounded by the flickering holograms of Sentients that were slowly fading out of existence.

He looked like an Excalibur Prime, but the golden details were different in shape and place, and he was black instead of white. He was wearing a long black scarf on his neck, and was resting his left hand on the hilt of a long curved blade that was sheathed at his hip. He was not even looking at them, choosing instead to stare at the sky.

The team slowly moved to surround him, as it had been taught to them to do in case of an unaware enemy. Once they were all in position, Valkyr slowly moved in front of him. He was now in the middle of their formation, their weapons aimed squarely at his face. When he moved, it was not in the way they thought he would though.

He started slowly clapping.

"Well done. It would seem they actually do teach you some form of tactics in that school of yours. I'm now surrounded on all sides, your weapons on me, your fingers on the trigger… was I a normal opponent, I would have no way to get out of this without getting either heavily injured or outright killed."

He slowly turned to look at Oberon, who had to suppress a shiver when the faceless mask turned towards him.

"But I have to ask you a question" he continued; "Did you think I was a common enemy?"

Suddenly, there was a shift, and all four teammates immediately started unloading their rifles at him. However, it was for naught, as he had jumped behind Oberon before the thought of shooting had even fully formed in his head. A kick to the back of his knees had him on the ground kneeling, where a strike to the back of his neck with the hilt of the strange blade was enough to trigger an automatic link-cut and awaken Carlos back in the Arsenal, his warframe falling to the ground like a puppet with their strings cut.

This had taken a whole 2 seconds to happen, during which Valkyr had decided to forgo her rifle and jumped at him, claws extended, forcing her two teammates to hold their fire or risk hitting her.

Valkyr had expected her opponent to unsheathe his blade and engage her, sword to claw, but he didn't. He placed his blade back at his hip and simply waited for her attack. As she attempted to strike him with her claws he simply dodged her with minimal movement or redirected her strikes with almost gentle slaps of his hands to her wrists.

"You have a lot of rage in your steps, little kitty" he said, infuriating her. "I wonder, does all of your passion come from your anger? Or is it the rejection of your own fear that drives you?"

He grabbed her wrists, forcing her immobile. "Is your childish act the truth, or just a mask you use to deceive everyone, including yourself?"

Enraged beyond coherent thought, Valkyr attempted to kick him to force him to release her, but instead he grabbed her leg and swung her away, making her go straight trough a wall.

As soon as she was away from him, Excalibur and Mirage started shooting again, but their opponent was enveloped in golden light and dashed at them, engaging them in swordplay.

Abandoning their Braton, the two grabbed their Skana from their backs and got ready just in time for the curved, golden blade to clash against them.

What followed was a dance of the two attempting to strike at their opponent from various angles, while he masterfully moved his blade in slashes that always managed to deviate their swords just enough to make them miss. A couple times, they had managed to get into a lock-down between their blades, but all this had accomplished was showing them that the two of them combined were just strong enough to hold against him, bringing to either them retreating and trying another attack or him moving his blade in a quick slash and forcing them off-balance.

It took very little for the two teammates to realize that their enemy was not taking them seriously.

However, at a moment when the two had retreated a short distance away to catch their breath, a wall of sand rose and fell down on their opponent, obscuring him from view and, they hoped, binding him in place.

"Get out of here!" ordered Inaros, arriving on the scene together with his sand. "Leave your teammates' warframes. They are safe, we can recover the frames once this situation is dealt with."

Before either student could reply, an explosion of golden light freed their opponent.

"Clever trick" declared the black Excalibur. "I salute you for this ingenuity. I doubt it will work a second time though."

"No need for it to work again. I will end you here and now!" replied Inaros, readying his Skana.

Without another word, he charged into battle. But upon reaching his enemy, he noticed that the other warframe had sheathed his weapon and simply jumped back out of range of the attack.

"I'm not here to fight you" was the declaration, before the black Excalibur raised his head and an otherworldly howl resonated trough the battlefield, completely freezing the teacher in place and making the two students fall unconscious.

* * *

Hiro woke up back at the academy, in what he recognized as the infirmary. Turning his head, he saw Carlos and Anna quietly talking on the side, sitting at a table, while on his other side he saw Ai, still unconscious, on the next bed over.

"You're awake" called Carlos, noticing the movement. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just got my ass kicked" was Hiro's reply. "Who was that guy?"

"No idea, but he was on a whole other level compared to us" replied the green haired boy, while Annalisa just got sulky.

It took about another half hour before the nurse came back, during which Ai also woke up. Once they were all checked up, they were let go.

"We should go to the Arsenal" proposed Ai. "All of us have had our link forcefully cut, we should check our warframes are back and in good condition."

Nobody had a better idea, so that's where they went.

Upon reaching it though, they found their teacher, Vandham, sitting next to Excalibur Prime.

"I thought the four of you would come here" he said, rising from his chair and moving towards them; "We need to talk."

"What you met during this exercise is someone we have codenamed Shadow" he started, "me and Reo… sorry, professor Hinata, first met him on Mars, accompanied by someone else. His partner looks about your age, has reddish hair and green eyes. They are both considered to be extremely dangerous, and we know nothing about their objectives or the full extent of their abilities."

He then turned to Hiro, noticing he had gone pale during his talk.

"You okay there Yamamoto?"

"I think I met one of them the other night." said the boy.

Immediately, the professor grabbed him by the shoulders.

"What happened? When? Tell me everything!"

"I was having trouble sleeping last night" commenced Hiro, "so I went for a walk trough the corridors. Without noticing it, I arrived here at the Arsenal. I sat down at my station, thinking about things, when he arrived. He was like you described: red-brown hair, to his shoulders, green eyes… he said his name was Rylus. We just talked, while he was looking at the frames."

"What did you talk about? What did he do to the warframes? Which ones?" asked the teacher, filing away all the informations. Command would want to know this stuff to the last detail.

"We just talked about generic stuff, he didn't ask anything about us or the academy" replied the dark haired boy. "And he didn't do anything to the frames, not even touched them. He just looked at them." Hiro did not mention his vision of the darkness and the red eyes. He didn't want to look crazy.

Professor Vandham took a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh.

"Okay..." he said; "okay… now, you kids go back to your rooms, and rest. Your warframes are safe. Do not talk to anyone about what we discussed here. If you ever see this Rylus, or Shadow, immediately retreat and sound the alarm. Do not ever engage either of them. Am I clear?"

Hiro, Carlos and Ai immediately nodded. They were not interested in getting their ass kicked again anyway. Annalisa on the other hand glared in the general direction of her warframe.

"Am I clear, Miss Gatti?" repeated Vandham, now looking straight at Anna.

"Yes sir" she replied, unhappily.

* * *

Orbiting around the sun, hidden away in void echoes, a large ship opened its hangar in order to let in the landing craft coming back from the moon. As soon as it was inside, the black Excalibur dropped from it, and right as it touched the pavement Rylus appeared in a blue flash in front of it.

"That went pretty well, even if I do say so myself" declared the Tenno to nobody, walking away from the liset and leaving Umbra to find his own way to the Arsenal.

"Operator, I do not understand the purpose of this provocative actions" called out Ordis trough the ship speakers. "Is it not your objective to destroy the sentients?"

"It is, but these people are not ready" was his answer. "They still need a full team of warframes to take down a single Sentient soldier. Most of them are not even able to fully access the powers of their warframes."

"Can you not teach them?" asked the AI, eager to offer solutions. "You are a Tenno Master after all."

"I could. Most of them would probably be open to it too" replied Rylus as he entered the bridge; "but their leaders are just like the Orokins, though not quite as corrupted as them. Drunk on their own power, believing they know better only because they have more authority. I won't be able to teach anyone anything unless these abusers of power will be made to tremble and fall by their own hubris. Just like the Orokin before them, they will need to fail, over and over, before they are willing to accept they need the Tenno."

He then grabbed a cup full of a warm liquid that appeared on a console nearby, drinking a sip and opening the console to check the information he had acquired in the last couple days all organized and put together.

"In the meantime, I might have to do some damage control and stop these children from killing themselves" he finished, moving to the navigation console and leaving the screen he had been using on a picture of Annalisa.


	4. What are we?

Anna was pissed.

For days now she had not been able to get her meeting with the unknown warframe code-named "Shadow" out of her head. She had been defeated so _easily_!

Not just that, but his words had touched something deep inside her. And because of it, she had just thrown caution to the wind and attempted an obvious move that saw her getting defeated in the blink of an eye.

It would have been so easy to just pretend he had been wrong. To hold her past in the little box she usually kept it in. To laugh in his face as if he had just said the funniest thing she had heard the entire week.

But she hadn't. Because he was right. Because no matter the mask Anna always kept, Shadow had read her like an open book.

She didn't want that.

If you acted all though and kept to yourself, people eventually get it into their head to try and understand you. To try and solve you as if you are a puzzle. Not because they actually care. Nobody actually cares. It's just because they want to tell themselves "I did it". Because they want you to look at them with grateful eyes and say "Thank you for solving my problems". It's all about validation. People need someone to validate the overly large opinion they have of themselves. The few who didn't suffer from this were those few who went trough Hell and came back mostly sane. Because they knew what they were made of. Because they understood that the world was uncaring and cruel and full of suffering.

But Anna had quickly found out that if you put up a mask, if you fake happiness and cheeriness and pretend to always want to get close and be friends with everyone, people rapidly leave you alone. Because there is no mystery. No challenge. People wouldn't be getting their precious validation trough befriending you.

But of course, keeping such a mask of the simple, over-excited and curious girl attracted another type of attention...

She was roused from her thoughts when she heard the showers' door open. Looking back, she recognized the boy who entered as the first one who had done this. About as tall as her, blonde haired, and a smirk that he probably thought sexy but was actually rather sinister.

Anna did not even say anything, she just turned back to the wall and lay her forehead against it. Somewhere deep inside she wanted to fight back, but her body wouldn't move. Her body had never wanted to move. No matter how strong she was, this situation always paralyzed her.

She felt his hands on her shoulders, pushing her against the wall. She only hoped he would be done quickly.

* * *

Carlos was sitting at his station in the Arsenal, wondering. It had been a few days since their run-in with the Shadow warframe, and it had made him re-evaluate a few things.

Carlos wasn't like many of the other kids that had been brought to the academy after a tragedy. He had been a volunteer for the Void exposure experiments. His father had been a soldier, and he had died during the first attack of the Sentients. Before leaving for service, the man had made his son promise to take care of his mother and sisters, as was his duty as the eldest. So Carlos had joined the Lotus Academy. As a volunteer, he could get his family as a priority evacuation in case of an attack, which was the best he could do until they had enough strength to end the Sentient threat forever.

However, the fight with Shadow had made him realize just how far they still had to go. The dark warframe moved so incredibly fast and with such extreme precision, and he had been toying with them from the very first moment. They had had no chance, and watching the feed of the short melee Ai and Hiro had with him proved with perfect clarity just how weak they were in comparison.

Carlos had spoken at length with Professor Vandham and the man had revealed that the Shadow warframe and his partner Rylus had both come out of a stasis capsule that dated all the way back to the age of the Orokin, which probably meant he was one of the warriors who originally used the warframes in those times. So, while humanity was grasping at straws in trying to understand the power of the warframes and of the Orokin's technology, those two had been taught how to use them by their original creators.

So, all they needed was more training, and they would possibly reach that same level of strength and power, right? At least, that was what the professor believed. And yet, Carlos could not help but feel they were missing some huge piece of the puzzle.

* * *

Anna felt the hands that were slowly moving down her back being suddenly ripped away from her. Turning around she saw the blonde boy being thrown to the opposite side of the shower-room, a good ten meters away, and another person, fully dressed, standing just about a meter away from her.

Dark clothes, auburn hair, and beautiful emerald green eyes that were currently scanning her, as if looking for injuries. Rylus!

"I don't know who you are, fucker!" barked the blonde boy, getting up to his feet, "but you just made a big mistake interrupting us".

Rylus slowly, deliberately, took a step back from Peri and turned around to face the other male in the room. He was not impressed. Large stance made more for intimidation than for efficient fighting, muscles that had just barely started developing, cocky smirk that meant he was severely underestimating his opponent…

"You're a casualty waiting to happen, kid" declared Rylus.

"Hey now… do you even know who you're talking to?" asked the blonde, swaggering towards them. It _might_ have been intimidating with the right clothes and setting, but with him being naked in a shower-room it just looked ridiculous.

"I'm the pilot of Excalibur, I'm the best in Class A. And that is MY bitch. If you're smart, you would get out of here now".

"You're a child playing around with powers you don't understand and will never be able to control," said Rylus, his tone now icy, "you're nothing".

The blonde boy stopped, startled, as if he couldn't understand that someone had just said such a thing to him. Then his face twisted in anger and he launched himself at Rylus, going for a punch to his face.

The redhead though simply sidestepped the punch, grabbed the boy's wrist with his right hand and brought down his left elbow on his opponent's. With a loud crack, the bone broke under the blow and the blonde fell to the ground cradling his now useless arm.

Rylus however did not stop there, and grabbed his opponent by the hair, pulling him to his feet and the slamming his head against the wall, cracking the tiles. The boy slid down unto the pavement and laid there, if dead or just unconscious Anna couldn't say.

"Well, now that that's over..." Rylus trailed off upon noticing the girl sliding down the wall, then curling up in fetal position.

She could not understand it. She had seen and been in hundred of fights, most very much more violent than the one which had just took place, but for some reason she could not stop trembling.

Why was Rylus even here? Why had he helped her? Was he helping her? Her mind was frantically trying to catch up on the happenings around her, partly still frozen for what had almost happened and partly going into overdrive because of the fight or flight response she was having to the short fight.

One thing she knew for sure: she was currently naked in a shower, while Rylus – a possible enemy – was fully dressed and possibly equipped with weapons and could most likely kill her at any moment, especially if his skill were anywhere near his partner's.

She felt someone, Rylus she assumed, moving to sit down beside her. Her heart-rate spiked, her body coiling, ready for the battle she assumed was about to happen.

However, after a few moments of nothing happening, she dared to raise her head and look at him. He was sitting comfortably, leaning against the wall behind him, facing upward with his eyes closed. He had a soft, content smile on his lips.

"You'll get your clothes wet" stated Anna, the words coming out before her brain could fully engage.

"It's not a problem" came the reply, "I don't mind a bit of water, and I can change later anyway".

Silence returned between them.

"Should I thank you?" asked the brunette. She had no idea what was going on, but she preferred this conversation to the prospect of a pointless battle.

He hummed in consideration, then offered: "Do you want to?"

Anna snorted. He chuckled. She started giggling, and in short order both of them were laughing. She was actually laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes. It felt good.

"Thank you for helping me" she finally said after calming down. Somehow, he didn't have the same feel to him as the people who just wanted to solve her like a puzzle. Something about him felt… warm.

"No problem kitty" he replied.

Anna hid her face against her legs to hide the slight blush on her cheeks. This was not the time to blush because of a nickname!

* * *

"Hey you!" called someone to Hiro, who woke up with a start after having fallen asleep while listening to Ash's music. Turning to look, the boy saw that it was Ash herself that was calling to him.

"Since you're always sticking around listening to me playing, how about you return the favor and help me out a bit?"

"Um… sure?" replied Hiro. "What do you need help with?"

In lieu of answering, Ash dropped a book on military tactics on his lap.

"Prof. V. told me that my ideas are good, but I suck at using them. You always give the right answer when we're in class for strategical stuff. So help me out!"

"Sure, okay, I can do that" replied the black haired boy, opening up the book to the bookmark within it. "Where do you wanna start…?"

"Not here. I can't focus with all these people around. Let's go to my room" was the reply, as Ash had already packed the guitar she had been playing just before and was moving towards the staircase.

As Hiro ran to catch up with her, she slowed down and said softly: "And if you'd like, afterwards… I can play some more?"

* * *

"Why did you come help me?" asked Anna. "Why would you care? I mean, you attacked us just a few days ago".

"I care because nobody cared about us" came the reply. "Because in a world that considers us monsters, what do we have left but each other? I come from a time where those touched by the void were called demons, where children were told about us as if we were horror stories, and where we had no rights and our opinion or wishes counted for nothing. I'd much rather avoid history repeating itself… especially the ending".

"The ending?" asked Anna, her voice little more than a whisper.

"The fall of the Orokin Empire" he replied. He had a faraway look on his face, and his voice had gradually become softer. Then, suddenly, he turned to face the girl.

"At first, I thought you guys were just another version of the Orokin. Just another civilization bloated on its own arrogance and self-importance. Another world that was ready to throw their young and brightest at the Sentients just to buy itself a few more days of life. But I changed my mind".

He rose to his feet, holding out his hand for Anna to take, and once she did he pulled her up as well.

"These people, who call themselves leaders, are even worse than the Orokin. They are incompetent fools who believe they can control the Void out of some misguided sense of superiority. Even at the height of their arrogance, the Empire kept their respect and reverence for the chaos of the Void, but these governments that lead you believe it to be a resource to be exploited, and soon enough they might kill everyone in the system just to feed their egos".

"But how can we stop them?" she asked. There was a sense of urgency now, and she really did not want to find out what it was that that could kill them all even faster than the Sentients.

"You break the chains. You fight back and ensure none can disturb the balance, so that what was caged in the Void stays there and never returns to the physical realm".

He took a deep breath, and then added:

"Long before this war is over, you'll all be Tenno."

* * *

Reo Hinata was on long range security duty. It basically meant waiting in a room full of monitors and instruments and hope no alarm sounded, as an alarm would mean a Sentient invasion.

The man was enjoying a tea, thinking back on the last few days and about how his class was doing. While he was pleased by their overall progress, considering how little time they had to learn until now, he was worried about the undercurrent of arrogance and resentment that was brewing. His class was easily – and unfortunately, obviously – the best among the standard warframe pilot classes. This however had fostered a sentiment among some in the class that they were better than everyone else, and that the only reason the Prime class had better results was because they had been given the Prime warframes. Reo had heard more than once about whispered conversations among his students who believed that they were the ones deserving of a place in the Prime class.

And of course, he had heard of far more sinister rumors. Sabotages to other classes and stealing stuff from other students were worrying, but what had caught his attention was the rumors of a group of Class A boys harassing a girl from the Prime Class. However, when he had attempted to investigate the rumor, the traces had disappeared strangely fast. He was almost sure someone was helping the students keeping the matter hidden, but he had no idea what anyone would gain from protecting a bunch of boys who were harassing a girl, especially as most parents of students were either poor, kept in safe locations cut off from communication, or dead.

He was so busy contemplating this, he almost missed the insistent beeping of one of the console. Checking the instruments, he paled as he noticed a large number of signals appearing on the screen. As he sounded the alarm, he kept seeing the number increasing more and more, and the signals were moving towards Earth.

Vandham entered the room at a full run, only stopping next to his partner. It took the man one glance at the screen to come to the same conclusion as his fellow professor.

A Sentient wave was coming.


	5. Looking inside a broken, ugly thing

**Took absolutely forever to do this. Writer's block, work and other projects swallowed up a lot of my time and most of my energy. I had originally meant to put the entire event in one chapter, but as I reached what is now the ending of this chapter, I realised I was not sure how to continue past this. I know what the aftermath will be, now I just need to write the connection. For now, admire how everything goes to shit for these poor kids.**

* * *

"ETA 10 minutes" announced the voice of the pilot, detached and professional.

Vandham wanted to scream.

He was currently in a dropship, together with his class, waiting to be dropped on Istanbul to fight Sentients. Real ones this time.

They were not ready. They were most likely all going to die.

He had asked, begged really, the Military Alliance command to just use the Void Bomb and let the students develop their skills to the point of at least having a chance, but they hadn't cared. They didn't understand, didn't want to understand. These kids, ranging from 14 to 20 year old, were the only hope humanity had left against the sentient menace. And their leaders were sending them all to die without a care in the world.

Reo had found out that apparently one of the men on the alliance council, the governing body of the Military Alliance, had his family in Istanbul and had made promises and concessions in order to make command give the order to send the warframes, so as to try to save his family who would have surely died if a Void bomb was dropped.

To save one family who might very well be already dead, they were sacrificing their only hope to defeat the sentients.

If he was alive after this, Jack swore he would kill the fucker.

* * *

"Drop-point beta swarmed by hostiles, redirecting to drop-point theta. ETA 5 minutes".

Reo Hinata contemplated his class. Aside from Excalibur, everyone else was there. The best pilot for each standard warframe they could currently produce, that was his class.

They didn't have a chance in hell to get trough this alive.

Their excellent performance in their first few training exercises had made them arrogant, and like teenagers the world over they believed themselves immortal, as if nothing could touch them, above consequences. Exactly the kind of attitude that got you killed on a real battlefield.

Privately, Reo was happy Excalibur had been found passed out and with a broken arm in the showers. He was by far the most arrogant of the bunch, and without him around the others might be convinced to follow caution rather than charge in like cannon fodder.

There was also the fact that if he wasn't there, then it was one more kid who might learn from the massacre that was about to happen. A morbidly fatalistic way of looking at things, but one takes what they can get.

* * *

"Operator, we're about to arrive to the landing zone. As you instructed, we're here undetected by enemies and ahead of the Lotus classes".

"Thank you Ordis" replied Rylus, piloting Excalibur Umbra.

This was a very, very bad situation.

He had been talking with Annalisa when the alarm had sounded and the order was given to all pilots to go to their warframes. A sentient wave was attacking a large city on Earth, and the warframes had to be deployed.

Barely trained, unprepared, without any real understanding of what they were up against.

"Feels like being back with the others" murmured the boy.

As Umbra dropped from the Landing craft, it took him all of a moment to realize the situation the city was in: in a word, it was lost.

Sentient soldiers were swarming the streets, mostly idly moving about looking for stuff to kill. Whatever resistance had been found in the city, be it law enforcement or the army, had probably been neutralized within minutes of touch-down.

"Patience, my friend" murmured Rylus to Umbra as the warframe's inner voice wanted to attack the enemy. "We're not here to destroy our enemies today, we're here to save those children who are not yet ready for this war".

Umbra's mind pulsed with disapproval, his hate for the sentient boiling hot at seeing them for the first time in millennia.

"We both know what will happen if arrogant and corrupt leaders are free to manipulate these children as they wish, don't we?".

Umbra settled down at that, barely. As much as he hated and wanted to annihilate the sentients, he could accept putting the fate of these kids first.

Without any further comment, he took off, running up the closest building and taking up position at the top of a medium sized skyscraper. Pulling his Vectis Prime from his back, he used the zoom to observe the first drop-ship of the Lotus academy that came into view.

"This is gonna be a long day" he said to nobody in particular.

* * *

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Excalibur Prime took off, trusting that his team would be right behind him. Their orders were clear, they had to find a defensible position and establish a base there. Once that was done, they would go out and search for civilians, who would then be brought back to their small base. Periodically, a shuttle would pass each base to give ammunition and take civilians.

The plan went to shit pretty much right away.

Several warframes had been downed by enemy fire as soon as the doors of the shuttle had opened, multiple sentients having converged at the landing point. As soon as he touched the ground, Inaros cast out a wall of sand, smashing the nearby sentients against a wall close by.

"Scatter!" he bellowed, prepping his Braton Mk-1 as he watched the sentients get back up, slightly dazed but undamaged.

Excalibur Prime and his team took the chance and moved away, darting into an alleyway as fast as they could, Mirage Prime turning invisible as they went and jumping away, moving to scout ahead, the sound of Inaros' battle fading away behind them.

After about five minutes of running and avoiding open areas, Excalibur, Valkyr and Oberon reached Mirage, who had in the meantime found and scouted out a bar. It was small and the door had been blasted off its hinges, but it didn't stand out and they could hide in it for a few minutes while planning their next move.

"Anyone else is really glad out bodies are still on the moon, safe and sound?" asked Valkyr. She was obviously trying to act cheerful, but it sounded hollow even to her own ears.

"Forgot about the somatic feedback, have you?" pointed out Mirage, with some irritation.

There was a time and place for jokes, and this wasn't it goddamnit!

"Senhoras, please;" came Oberon's voice, trying to play peacemaker; "we can argue and fight once we find a safe place to settle down. Right now, we need our heads in the game."

The two looked at him, then at each other, then Valkyr snorted and walked off to go lay down on a nearby mostly intact couch, while Mirage sat at a half-destroyed table that had miraculously remained upright and started checking her rifle.

Oberon internally sighed in relief and started looking around for a place to sit down, but all three jumped up when Excalibur slammed his fist on the wall and then leaned his head on it.

"Excalibur?" asked Oberon, worried about the outburst.

There was no answer.

"Hiro?" he tried again.

* * *

Excalibur didn't reply. He didn't hear him.

His mind was moving at the speed of light, remembering and re-analysing and re-considering everything they had been told, and everything they hadn't.

Every direction he tried, every line of thought he followed, they all went back to the same inexorable ending:

They didn't have a chance. They were all going to die.

"How do we fight them?" he finally demanded, his voice growing in volume with every word.

"How do we stop them? How do we find civilians in this hellhole? How are we supposed to survive any of this?" he finally screamed; "We barely held our own against practice dummies without any of the adaptive shielding of the real sentients. We spent less than a hundred hours linked up to our frames! Our homeroom teacher could easily kill all of us with both arms tied behind his back, and he said himself that he couldn't take more than a couple sentients at a time on his own!"

In anger, he grabbed a nearby chair and threw it towards the counter, where it smashed against the bottles of most likely very expensive liquor, raining glass and alcohol on the floor.

"What can we do?" he asked after a moment, his breath laboured.

All his anger had left him, and now he just felt tired and hopeless. He couldn't look at the others, wasn't brave enough to.

"You can hold your head high, raise your sword, and face the storm head on!" came a voice from the doorway.

* * *

Banshee Prime was waiting. Hidden behind a half-collapsed wall, her entire body holding as still as possible, silently praying to a God she had never believed in, she was waiting for the three sentients her team had fought to pass, hoping they would not find her.

Through her sonar, she could feel them move, painfully slow, right in her direction. Their bodies constantly gave out a deep, low, rhythmic pulse. The vibration of it was relentlessly pushing against her skull, drowning out all other sounds, anchoring her in place, incapable of moving a centimetre while those wretched machines kept coming closer.

As the pulsing grew beyond what she could bear, its continuous rhythm like a tortured melody, she suddenly realized they were right on the other side of the wall.

" _Come on Ash move out of the way"_ she told herself, trying to will her body to move without success.

" _Come on girl move away please please please..."_

The sentients moved their arms into position.

" _Please move please move come on come on come on..."_

They started charging.

" _Come on come on please please I don't want to die please..."_

Suddenly Braton fire could be heard, and the three Sentients lowered their arms and turned towards the Loki that had just appeared on the scene.

Banshee looked towards the Loki. From her position, she could see him at the end of the street, on the left of the Sentients who were about to blow up the wall she was standing behind.

He was looking at her.

Then he nodded at her, and sprinted away, turning invisible as he went, the Sentients in hot pursuit.

The machines gone, the pulsing leaving with them, the girl slid down the wall. She had almost died.

* * *

Breathing hard, she thought about her savior.

She didn't know his name.

He was a standard Loki, so part of another class. Maybe even Class A. Ash had barely bothered to learn the names of her squad, the rest of the class' had gone down as non-important, and the rest of the academy as insignificant.

She was broken out of her thoughts by a tortured scream, coming from the general direction the Loki had run towards. Slowly, on shaking legs, she got up. She had to leave. Now that the other warframe was dead, the sentients would return to look for her. If she was still behind the wall once they were back, she would not get another chance.

As she slowly walked away, her thoughts went back to her days before the academy. Days spent getting yelled at by a mother who believed her love for music was nothing but a meaningless distraction. Nights spent with an obsessed policeman father calling her a useless delinquent and a criminal in the making. Hours spent at a school where people hated her because she was different. Because she'd rather spend her time playing music rather than talking gossip or play sports or join after school clubs or work or make friends or a hundred other activities that were expected of her.

She hadn't cared. Not about her father obsession with his so-called honourable conduct, not with her mother narrow minded view of how life was supposed to be lived. Not for her peers' scorn, not for her teachers' hate. Music was all she needed. All she wanted. There was no need for people in her world.

She had never imagined that her father would be contacted by the government. That they would offer him to "make his daughter a hero this country can be proud of". He had taken that, hook, line and sinker. Signed her off to the army without a second thought. Without asking her mother. Without asking her.

Instead of a garrison, she had ended up in a laboratory. Instead of marching through the mud, she had been strapped to a table and bombarded with Void energy.

And she had found it.

A rhythm. A pulse. A low, deep, primal sound moving through the Void like ripples through water, reverberating in the endless abyss of it.

She had accepted it. Embraced it. Internalized it to the point that her own heartbeat felt like it was in sync to that primordial rhythm.

Soon after, she had been assigned to the Banshee Prime warframe and promptly shipped off to the Moon. She had though the cycle would just continue there. More teachers to scold her, more peers to scorn her. It was not new, she knew that life well.

But it was not so. Her homeroom teacher and the one from Class A accepted her. The other teachers at worst ignored her. Her peers casual acceptance of her musical habits moved her more that it should have. The first evening, when she had brought her beloved guitar to the common room and started playing, having nobody yell at her to stop it and leave was such an amazing thing that she had almost cried. Why did this suddenly matter so much? She didn't understand herself.

Her teammates had come the day after. She had expected many things from them. For them to enthusiastically accept her was not among them. She had cried then. Without understanding why, the tears started to fall and she couldn't stop them. Her team had not reacted outside of putting their hands on her shoulders, a silent show of support. Because they understood. Because they all had their stories, and knew she had hers.

And finally, Hiro had arrived. A shy guy, jumping at his own shadow. And yet, he had reached out for her music. She had noticed almost right away. While her classmates accepted her music, they usually didn't stop to listen, busy as they were with their own stuff.

He had stopped. He had sat down, as unobtrusive as possible, closed his eyes and just listened.

It had felt… intimate, somehow. He actively chose to listen to her music, to her playing. He had taken the time to listen to her. Anything she played, he listened. She had played classical music, he was there. Played rock, he stayed. Played country, punk, metal… he was always there. And so, she had bared her soul to him, giving him everything she had through her music. She had been naive, to give herself away like that to the first guy to genuinely love her talent, but she had also been lucky. Because he had listened, always a soft smile on his lips, his eyes closed.

And so she had approached, using the excuse (real as it may have been) of needing help with schoolwork. She had brought him to her room. They had studied together. Laughed together. And then she had played for him, just the two of them. This time, his eyes weren't closed. They were looking straight at each other. They were two souls, bright flames within the Void, with music connecting them. They both understood something had fundamentally shifted between them, though neither of them had dared to give name to it.

As he had left, a scant three hours before the call to action came, she had kissed him. A simple, quick peck on the lips. He had said nothing. She had said nothing. Then he had left and she had gone to bed. But that something, that connection, was there.

* * *

Banshee was pulled from her thoughts by the hated pulsing of sentient machinery. Raising her head, she saw four in front of her, arms raised and prepared to fire.

Looking back she saw three more, most likely the ones she was running from, had caught up to her.

She was surrounded. She had no backup. There was no way out.

She was going to die.

Inwardly, she smiled sadly. Strange how, as death came closer, her first thought was that she didn't get the chance to spend more time with Hiro.

She heard the sentients' weapons charging, the soft whine intermingled with the atrocious pulsing from their cores.

The pulse was what bothered her the most. She didn't want to die while listening to THAT!

And so she dove deep within herself, seeking out the rhythm the Void had left within her, focusing on it in an attempt to drown out the pulsing of the sentients. She would gladly embrace oblivion while listening to it rather than those sour notes.

And so she focused all of herself on it, and slowly but surely it grew stronger, filling her ears and her mind, making her body vibrate in the rhythm of power. It was as the strength of the Void reached its climax that she felt the impact, and everything went black.

* * *

Nidus was breathing hard. Down on one knee, his warframe's body covered in injuries that were slowly regenerating, he took that one moment of calm to consider their situation.

Their shuttle had never made it to the landing zone. Several members of the class had died during the crash. Many more had been killed by sentients swarming the wreckage.

He had given the order to disperse. Some had tried, few had succeeded. Most had remained paralysed with fear, easy pickings for the enemy's weapons.

Now what was left was him. His back to the crushed shuttle, a swarm of easily over twenty sentients before him.

Slowly, he rose up. Even with Nidus' quick healing, he was struggling to stay upright. He assumed a ready position, his Lato gun in hand, pointed forward. He knew it wouldn't make a difference now, but he would be damned before he showed his fear to these monsters.

"Not coming home this time, pal" he murmured.

As he saw the sentients raise their weapons, fear left his mind. There was nothing else to do now.

He was ready.

* * *

In an alley somewhere in the city, a Loki was on the ground. His left arm and left leg, as well as a large chunk of his chest, had been blown off.

Back on the moon, the pod containing his pilot was flashing red, vital signs flat-lining. Nobody came to see, there was nobody left who could. All the medical staff was already busy with many of the other pods, the entire room tinted red by the pods' lights.

And above all of them, inside the control room, General Creed closed his eyes and sighed deeply. He was watching as their so-called "leaders" might very well have just wasted humanity's last hope.

"If any gods are left to watch us" he finally said "then I beg you: just give them a chance!"


End file.
